38.3
Styris to Pietersen, SIX, wow, what a shot, that is awesome..its a repeat of his six off Muralitharan at Edgbaston, as he switches his grip and reverse-hits Styris over deep cover for a memorable maximum.

Originally Posted by Cricinfo

42.6
Styris to Pietersen, SIX, that's the most extraordinary shot, he switches his grip to that of a left-hander and launches Stryis high over long-off for a might six. That is one of the more incredible shots you'll see

* only has to bat 79% of the time.
* contributes 11.15 runs per game.
* has only passed 50 twice in 55 Twenty20 Internationals - once when New Zealand were reduced to 64/5 and once when New Zealand were reduced to 31/5.

Basically, it's very much a bit-part role. I actually think it's more similar to the #8/9 ODI role than anything else. This was counter-balanaced in early Twenty20 games by the fact that part-time spinners often used to be able to roll out four cheap overs without the batsmen realising but as the format has evolved, we've seen less and less and less of this. Batting teams are now really successfully targeting the part-time bowlers, particularly when they know at the start of the innings that they're going to have to bowl a certain number of overs between them.

I'm not saying there's no value in having a #7 that can bat, but I'm definitely starting to believe that the fifth bowler in Twenty20 cricket is far, far more important than the seventh batsman. As such, I'd have absolutely no qualms at all with seeing someone like Swann, Johnson, Mills or even Harbhajan come out at 7.

The counter-argument to this is the fact that Dave Hussey actually has a really good Twenty20 bowling record - he's basically become a frontline bowler for Victoria. I'm still pretty sceptical about him though so I'd feel more comfortable with the above. If Watto was available to bowl I'd bring Dussey in for Siddle or Hauritz.

Last edited by Prince EWS; 01-06-2009 at 12:21 PM.

Rejecting 'analysis by checklist' and 'skill absolutism' since Dec '09
'Stats' is not a synonym for 'Career Test Averages'

Originally Posted by Jeffrey Tucker

People go into politics to change the world. That's a bad idea. The only good reason to go into politics is to sweep government away so that the world can change itself.

* only has to bat 79% of the time.
* contributes 11.15 runs per game.
* has only passed 50 twice in 55 Twenty20 Internationals - once when New Zealand were reduced to 64/5 and once when New Zealand were reduced to 31/5.

Basically, it's very much a bit-part role. I actually think it's more similar to the #8/9 ODI role than anything else. This was counter-balanaced in early Twenty20 games by the fact that part-time spinners often used to be able to roll out four cheap overs without the batsmen realising but as the format has evolved, we've seen less and less and less of this. Batting teams are now really successfully targeting the part-time bowlers, particularly when they know at the start of the innings that they're going to have to bowl a certain number of overs between them.

I'm not saying there's no value in having a #7 that can bat, but I'm definitely starting to believe that the fifth bowler in Twenty20 cricket is far, far more important than the seventh batsman. As such, I'd have absolutely no qualms at all with seeing someone like Swann, Johnson, Mills or even Harbhajan come out at 7.

The counter-argument to this is the fact that Dave Hussey actually has a really good Twenty20 bowling record - he's basically become a frontline bowler for Victoria. I'm still pretty sceptical about him though so I'd feel more comfortable with the above. If Watto was available to bowl I'd bring Dussey in for Siddle or Hauritz.

Agreed with your Australian eleven, except i guess David Hussy may play in place of Ricky Ponting

I don't think there is need for an average fast-medium swing bowler (with the white ball I mean, since both swing the red ball very well) in T20. Neither have shown to be good in T20 (Anderson especially who has 12wkts @ 28.41, 8.11eco and 21sr in 11 matches).

Medium, Medium-Fast and Spin bowlers are the ideal type of bowlers in this format (generally if they don't take wickets, they don't get pasted) and I have 5 bowlers who fit into those categories in my XI plus the pace of Broad (and from the speed gun today on Fidel Edwards who bowled as fast as he normally does, Broad CAN bowl 90mph+ and up to 93mph).

I'd drop Shah because he hasn't impressed me that much with his batting and is a complete liability between the wickets. He could very easily run someone out to lose the game for us and he doesn't have Inzamam level of batting skill to make up for it.

Whereas i really would love to kick Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis khan & Rao out of the Pakistani playing XI
but 've no choice lol

I am really surprised at Rao playing so many matches for Pakistan. He is the exact anti-thesis for what a pakistani fast bowler should look like. Also I thought Fawad Alam was a player good enough to get into the team. Don't understand why he is not playing.